1975 CB750 P2 Police Bike

[JamesH]

So has been a ‘slow progress’ couple of weeks. Came back from Skiing and promptly got the ‘Rona, so that held progress up quite a bit.

Also, quite a few of the electrical component refurbishment jobs are REALLY time consuming - restoring the original rectifier took 3-4 hours on its own, a couple of hours restoring the pilot light indicator ‘brushed’ plate, building up the rusty seat catch etc..

Anyway, all of the major electrics are now installed. The ‘silver’ heatshrink on the headstock was a complete waste of time as i feared it may be - the heatshrink was way to brittle and would have cracked within a few miles of use, so I striped it off and the loom will just have to remain black sheathed in the headstock area. A small concession really, but it was worth a try.

NOS ‘white’ rear plastic inner muguard was very carefully fitted, rear painted guard fitted and light bracket installed with wiring.

Rear indicators were also fitted and wired up.

Battery and tool tray fitted with new rubbers and new battery.

The rear shocks were new items, but they were stripped into component form and the shrouds were stripped of chrome, colour-match painted, and then reassembled onto the shocks. Again a 4-5hour job. Getting the details right on a build like this is hard, time consuming work. But I know the end product will be worth it.

Rear hubs came back from polishing after Graham kindly re-lined the rear hub after much arm-twisting (and cash).

New bearings have been fitted to both hubs, ready for the wheels to be laced and trued before new continental tyres go on them.

I’ve been saving a pair of NOS Honda oil lines for this bike, as she deserves the best. I’ve also saved a set of NOS Honda HM341 exhausts for the bike. The parts bill for this bike is going to be bloody eye watering


Next job will be to fit new bronze bushes to the swingarm and get that fitted, lubed and adjusted.

Oh, I also have had to rebuild the original speedometer (damping action was fine) with parts from the NOS speedometer I had - the drive mechanism on the NOS unit I had wasn’t correct for my particular vintage of police bike.

Progress photos below…

[Oddjob]

Are you doing the polishing yourself James? that amount of polishing would take ages in my experience.

[JamesH]

Are you doing the polishing yourself James? that amount of polishing would take ages in my experience.

Hi Ken. No - all the polishing is done by a pro; it’s grotty, dirty and skilled work beyond my skill set and resources. So I choose my battles lol..

[Johnny4428]

This is looking like a quality resto, leaves me wanting more!

[Trigger]

Strange to see a early seat catch on such a late bike ?

[JamesH]

Strange to see a early seat catch on such a late bike ?

I suspect Honda tooled-up for the shorter Police seat base (which is base on the early K0/K1 seat pattern) and carried the design through from K0 to the later models to avoid having to adjust existing stock. Just my theory anyway.

[Trigger]

Did Honda assemble any CB750 police bikes or was it done via a third party with Honda supplying the parts.

I know that Honda police bikes in the UK were done by Honda Dealerships or third party contracts.
All the BMW police bike were converted by Mottingham Motorcycles in the 70's / 80's. And all the dominos pizza Honda's were converted and sold by Grafton Motorcycles in wolverton. Never found out who did the Honda CD250 police bikes. We have one but, it was sold to the police, never converted or used by them.
 

[royhall]

Fantastic detail work James, puts the rest of us to shame. Looking at the amount of NOS on the bike (especially electrics) you must spend many hours searching for bits.

[Laverda Dave]

Fantastic work as always James. Are you going to keep this one due to it being so unusual?

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

That's a super looking build is the seat being different anything to do with where the Police VHF Radio Handset  was mounted or was that stuff behind the seat ?

[Oddjob]

Are you doing the polishing yourself James? that amount of polishing would take ages in my experience.

Hi Ken. No - all the polishing is done by a pro; it’s grotty, dirty and skilled work beyond my skill set and resources. So I choose my battles lol..

Well whoever does it is damned good. I'm betting though it's not cheap.

Is the earth cable meant to be on the outside of the frame James, looks odd there, I'd have thought between the frame and the spacer would have been a better place.

[JamesH]

Fantastic work as always James. Are you going to keep this one due to it being so unusual?

Thanks Davs - intention is to keep, but I'm wondering if I'll ever actually stump up the courage to ride it, or deal with the inevitible interest from 'plod' on every ride-out. Realisticlly I think it'll be sold at some point in the future - but it won't be cheap...my aim is to end up with a restored UK 750 K0, Early Sandcast (I have #820 waiting in the wings), a GL1000 and a modern bike. The rest will be sold...I've also stopped buying bikes now lol...

[JamesH]

Are you doing the polishing yourself James? that amount of polishing would take ages in my experience.

Hi Ken. No - all the polishing is done by a pro; it’s grotty, dirty and skilled work beyond my skill set and resources. So I choose my battles lol..

Well whoever does it is damned good. I'm betting though it's not cheap.

Is the earth cable meant to be on the outside of the frame James, looks odd there, I'd have thought between the frame and the spacer would have been a better place.

Ha! - you're the second person to ask me that question and the answer is it's in the correct factory position. I the contrast of teh black cable against the white paint of the frame draws your eye to it - but it's the factory position..good spot though lol.

[JamesH]

Top box, rear ‘bumper’ and rear lamp now fitted. Just need to secure the bumper to the rear fender with correct shouldered bolts / acorn nut.

Rear shocks test fitted (lol).

Original bearings cut out of the swingarm and popped the phosphor bronze bushes in the freezer for an overnight cool.

Front forks assembled and just waiting for the top nuts and they can be filled with 10W fork oil and the front end assembly can proceed.

Rear brake plate also assembled with new shoes fitted.

[JamesH]

Bit more of a progress update on the Police bike:

Wheels have been rebuilt - going to the local shop tomorrow for a pair of new Continental RB2/K112 tyres, new Michelin tubes and rim tape - the Conti’s are my go-to tyre choice.

Swingarm is now fitted (forgot to photograph the new bushes and new ‘collar’). Such a nice feeling putting a new set of phosphor-bronze bushes in with a new Honda ‘collar’. Smooth as butter, zero play, and fitted nicely back into the frame and torqued up. Freshly greased that’s one less job to do.

Rear ‘bumper’ now fully fitted and top box fully secured. Need to make up a jump-lead for the earth feed from the box to the loom.

Front end is coming together - forks fitted with new Honda gaitors, along with the ‘repainted’ fork ears that were rejected first time round.

Oil tank has been cleaned internally, fully repainted externally. Fitted perfectly with the NOS Honda fuel lines.

Moving on to the front brake calliper and master cylinder next.